- Cocaine addiction is often difficult to treat, particularly because exposure to others using cocaine or to pictures of cocaine may evoke cocaine craving and lead a person to resume cocaine use after having quit. Breaking this link with cocaine craving might improve treatment for cocaine addiction. Research suggests that repetitive pulses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied to the skull can change nerve cell firing in the brain. rTMS was recently approved as a treatment for depression, and is being studied as a way to reduce drug craving. However, because only a few small studies have looked at the effects of rTMS on cocaine craving, more research is needed on whether it is effective in reducing cocaine craving and use in individuals who currently use cocaine on a regular basis.